The lovely Godmother, AlternativeChat, did a project called 10 Years 10 Questions to commemorate World of Warcraft's 10 year anniversary on her blog http://www.alternative-blog.net. She's solicited answers to 10 (get it?) questions and will compile the answers (or a selection?, she's only human after all) from over 600 responses. I had originally sent in my response via email but figured I'd add it to the growing blog-post list for everyone to read.

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?

1. I had run a D&D game with my parents and some friends for 3 years, the last year of which was done using an online tool since I had moved across the country. Once we wrapped up the game in Dec 2004, I went looking for a way to keep in touch with my parents long distance and figured that an MMO might be the way to go. I reviewed what was out at the time including Ultima Online, Everquest and a couple others, but a new one called World of Warcraft appeared to have mitigated some of the worst MMO behaviors like kill-stealing, ganking, and death penalties. A friend of mine belonged to a guild and he explained things like factions and servers. Another friend said she'd show me how to play, so we created characters on the correct server and talked on the phone while she helped me learn the game's basic controls. Then I told my parents how and where to create characters, and we began chatting online through WoW while we all played. We didn't end up grouping as much as I expected due to schedules, but my parents still play 10 years later.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?

2. My first D&D character, TanaRhyn Saliir was a half-elf ranger-cleric with a pet snow leopard and I wanted a WoW character who was similar. Conveniently, my friend's guild was Alliance so I could choose a Night Elf. I liked Tana's melee combat (cleric), self-healing, and cat, and while a hunter could have a cat, they had no healing and little melee. I figured that if I chose a druid, then I could a least BE a cat and since a druid could play any role, it seemed like an excellent fit for a first character. Since she wasn't an exact copy of Tana, I named her something similar but unique -- Saliira. She's been Feral and my main from January 2005 and will always be my main. 

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?

3. I've always had a love for bad-ass elves and since my friend's guild was Alliance it was an easy choice. I'm drawn more to the noble archetype instead of the scrappy underdog, so the Horde didn't seem as good a fit back then, and I've only become more fond of Alliance and more distanced from Horde as the story and art style has progressed. I have never been able to level a horde character above around L50 for mostly visual aesthetic reasons, though I've played all the starting zones except foresaken since I can't stand to look at undead. 

4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?

4. My most memorable negative moment has probably been attempting to play through Hellfire Peninsula when pregnant and getting motion sick with the tilting of the terrain. I actually had to go dink around on alts until my pregnancy progressed to where I wasn't at risk of throwing up so easily. My most memorable positive moment was finishing those last few quests for Loremaster in Wrath. My guild helped me with the final few group quests, which I truly appreciated.

5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?

5. It's hard to narrow my favorite aspect of the game down to just one thing. I think it's a combination of checking off lists (questing, achievements, collecting) and resource management (professions). I'll add goldmaking to the list, because it's basically the reason TO do professions -- I need to have a purpose in what I do. I actually can't remember what I did with my main in Vanilla and BC, once I hit max level in each of those eras. I suppose I played on alts and crafted things. Wrath brought achievements which hooked me in an entirely new way and I probably started making gold to help fund mount and pet purchases for the collection achievements. To this day, that's what the vast majority of my money goes towards, and I've probably spent 750k gold on pets and mounts over the last 5 years.

6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?

6. I don't really have a geographic area of the game that I return to, though I'm a little nostalgic for Darnassus. I tend to park my toons in whatever location requires the absolute least travel for what they need to do AND is reasonably attractive. Right now, they're all parked in the Shrine except for my bank toon Zalir (Saliira's younger sister) who hangs out in Stormwind.

7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?

7. I have played consistently since Jan '05 and have never unsubbed. I've also not taken a break of more than a couple weeks for vacations. My /played on Saliira is 124 days 3.5 hours. My /played on my bank alt is 13 days 14 hours. My total on all my other alts is 78 days 13 hours. That averages to about 1.5 hours a day, which is probably about right. Of course, my time each day fluctuates with my chores and energy, and I certainly had more long stretches that I could play before I had kids.

8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?

8. Yup, I make an effort to read all the quest text in my first play through of each zone. Repeats, though, get the click-through-go treatment.

9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?

9. I can't say I have any regrets. I do wonder what my WoW life would be like if I had joined a friendly, welcoming, active raiding guild instead of a friendly, welcoming small friends-and-family guild. Maybe my only regret would be not becoming "conscious" until somewhere in Wrath -- it means I didn't realize that Vanilla activities like the opening of the gates of Ahn Qiraj were happening or what they meant. I knew something was going on, but it just didn't click that this was something I'd want to remember participating in, in whatever way I could. I'm content, though. It's all good.

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?

10. Warcraft hasn't had a huge impact on my outside-gaming life. It's driven computer upgrades, and has given me a singular, focused relaxation hobby that would have probably otherwise been a sequence of TV shows. WoW got me onto Twitter and there I've met a bunch of people I never would have become friends or acquaintances with otherwise. It's gotten me some guest spots on podcasts, which is always fun, but that's simply an extension of talking with friends.

So anyway, that's me. If you've listened to my guest spots on the Girls Gone WoW podcast or my visit with The Darkmoon Herald podcast, you've probably heard a lot of this already.

Good hunting! 

- @mbuhtz on twitter